September kicks off with a rainy and cooler pattern

Bend, Ore (KTVZ) – It appears that someone turned on a switch to cue the rain.  Today, the first day of September, will begin a rainy pattern. The rain will not arrive until very late in the day, more than likely the evening, and the wet pattern will begin.

The early portion of the day today has been mostly sunny then the clouds move in as the day moves along. I call this the transition day as the atmosphere sets up for the rain. This is what we have been looking for as the region is parched and the rain will be beneficial.

Wednesday will be a rainy day with showers most of the day. The rain is not expected to be heavy, just steady. This week will see a chance for rain each day into the weekend. The first week of September will be wet and that will be great for the fire fighting efforts. The smoldering hot spots throughout the 2.5 million acres that have burned this season will be slowly soaked. The only concern I have late in this forecast period will be the chance for some debris flows in some of the more mountainous sections of our numerous burn scars.

Thursday will be a mix of some sunshine and some rain.  The rain becomes slightly more widespread on Friday followed by some clearing on Saturday before more rain returns on Sunday.

The rain is expected to linger into Monday before we return to a dry pattern the following week.

The reason for all the rain will be the result of a couple of low -pressure systems that will spin through the Pacific Northwest. The first will stay off the coast Wednesday before dissipating and moving onshore into SW Oregon or Northern California. The main low will be arriving from the Gulf of Alaska and linger off the coast through the rest of the week and into the weekend. This low will remain over the Pacific Northwest past the weekend. There will be impulses or periods of rain that will continue to orbit this upper level low for several days. The parent low does not exit the area until late Monday or early Tuesday.

Keep the rain gear handy. The only concern may be minor flooding late this week. As mentioned earlier, burn scars from recent fires may also develop some debris flows or landslides as the vegetation responsible for holding the soil in place has been burned away for now.

Please, Stay safe and smart.

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